Let s take a look at this morning s text. God is Trustworthy Proverbs 3:1-6 September 30, 2012 Travis Collins

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1 God is Trustworthy Proverbs 3:1-6 September 30, 2012 Travis Collins On my first Easter here I told this story. I dusted it off and I want to tell it again. Once there was a grand Bible conference. Big name preachers were invited and throngs of the faithful came to hear good preaching. Just before the conference was to begin, however, the host of the conference found out that the first speaker of the day, a well-known pulpiteer, was not coming. And it was almost time to begin! So he grabbed a young preacher boy, new to the ministry. The conference organizer said, It s almost time to begin and the first preacher on the program is not coming. You must step in and take his place. The young preacher was intimidated and without realizing the implications of his decision, he agreed. Just then the pre-service music began. The young preacher sat down on the front pew sweating holy bullets. Within a half hour he would stand in front of hundreds of people who had come to hear fancy preaching from legendary preachers. He didn t have a sermon in his head. He didn t have a sermon in his pocket. He didn t have a sermon in his file. He hadn t a clue as to what he would say. An experienced, renowned preacher sat down by the young preacher, and the young man frantically explained his preaching predicament. The experienced preacher threw his chin up and his chest out and with a holier-than-thou sort of attitude gave this smug advice, Trust the Lord, young man, just trust the Lord. The older preacher then left to shake the hands and slap the backs of some old friends. The younger, frightened preacher noticed that the more experienced and rather self-righteous preacher had left his big leather Bible there on the pew. The preacher boy picked it up, looked inside, and found a sermon. He began to read it and he loved it. In fact, he thought it would be a good sermon for him to preach. So he studied the sermon and, when they called his name, he carried the older preacher s sermon to the pulpit and preached it as his own. Afterwards, as the congregation was singing, people crowded around the young pulpiteer and congratulated him on such a sermonic masterpiece. But the older, experienced, well-known preacher was furious. He pulled the young preacher aside and demanded, I m supposed to walk to that pulpit in five minutes! And you just preached the sermon that I was going to preach. What am I supposed to do? The young preacher threw his chin up and his chest out and answered, Trust the Lord! Just trust the Lord! Their idea of trusting the Lord is a bit shallow, but properly understood, that is good advice. We can, indeed, trust the Lord. Let s take a look at this morning s text 1

2 The high point of this proverb is found in verses 5&6, words that for many millennia have guided the lives of people who wanted to live right Trust in the LORD with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways submit to him, and he will make your paths straight. What does make your paths straight mean? The Bible says that if we trust the Lord, instead of our own understanding, and submit to God, He will make our paths straight. I think some of us have interpreted this verse to mean that if we trust God and do right then everything will line up perfectly. But the Bible is full of stories of folks who trusted God and did right and for whom the fulfillment of God s plan required the overcoming of a bunch of obstacles. So make your paths straight doesn t mean everything will fall into place. It means if you trust Him, God will keep you on track. I ve told you about my new hobby hiking. Now I haven t actually been on a hike yet, though I do have some really nice hiking boots and I did spend about a half hour on the Appalachian Trail over near Wintergreen. We didn t really hike; we just walked down there from the Resort. I was surprised at how narrow and almost obscure the trail is, at least in that stretch. My friend, Phil, showed me the stripes painted on the trees that mark the trail, but I noted how easy it would be to get lost. And then then we came up on a tree that had fallen across the trail and we had to leave the trail to get around it. By the time we wandered through the thickets and back we weren t exactly sure where the trail was. After a couple of minutes we found it, but that brief exit from the trail made me aware of how easy it would be to wander off the trail and made me wonder how more folks don t wander off the trail and get eaten by bears! Trusting the Lord means when an unexpected tree falls across the trail of life and we get off in the thickets, if we ll trust Him He will keep us on the track He planned for us. Isaiah 30:21 says, You will hear a voice behind you, saying, This is the way; walk in it. So trust the Lord. We are told to trust in the Lord with our hearts. Now, in ancient Hebrew thought the heart was more than the center of our feelings. For the Hebrews, the heart was the seat of emotion (feeling), intellect (thought) and volition (will, or decision-making). In Hebrew, as in Chinese, the words are formed by putting pictures or symbols together. So in Hebrew the word for heart, lev, like other Hebrew words, is actually a picture. Now, I didn t do all that well in Hebrew while I was in seminary, but from reading a Hebrew scholar named Jeff Benner I recently learned that the first character in the word, lev, reading 2

3 right to left, is the picture of a shepherd s staff and represents the authority of a shepherd over his sheep. The second character is the picture of a floor plan in a Hebrew tent. When put together, the two symbols that make up the Hebrew word, lev, means the authority within. So we could read Proverbs 3:5, as Trust the Lord with all your authority within. We are to trust God with our inner authority. What is your inner authority? Is it your intellect? Then remember that God is smarter than you are. Is it your feelings? Then remember that God is compassionate, meaning He feels with you, so trust Him. Is it your volition, or will? Are you strong-willed, in other words? Then trust the will of God. You can trust him with your heart, because you can trust His heart Keri and I went to a Christian bookstore here in Richmond back in February of We were in orientation to be missionaries out in Rockville at what was called then the Missionary Learning Center, and we were stocking up on Christian music for life in Nigeria. We bought a cassette that day, and found a song that we loved. When you can t trace His hand, trust His heart. I remember saying to Keri, One day that song is going to be very important to us. I was right. They were so helpful to me in those early, difficult days in Nigeria, and then again when my father s stroke made it impossible for us to return to Nigeria. Remember When you can t trace His hand (in the crises of your life), trust His heart. On what do we base that trust? Certainly looking around and celebrating all the ways God has proved trustworthy helps us trust Him more. He s provided for the very air we breathe and has given us the health to be here. In a few weeks we will have our annual Thanksgiving service and people will stand and declare God s blessings this year. We will declare with the psalmist, His faithfulness is new every morning. When God blesses us we find Him trustworthy. But there is more. Our trust in God is based not primarily on His provision of our needs, for one day we might feel He has let us down. One day the news will be bad and trusting God then will need to be based on something more substantial than the fact that things are going pretty well for us. 3

4 The evidence that God is trustworthy is not our immediate circumstances The ultimate reason for our trust in God is 2,000 years old the death and resurrection of Jesus. That is the ultimate evidence of God s trustworthiness. It shows both His heart and His power. One day Jesus took upon himself our sins and died. Three days later he was not dead anymore. Simple as that. You can trust Him because of His heart for the world, His mission to the world. And His power to change the world. I recently listened on CD to the book, The Bedford Boys. It is a moving story about an All- American small town west of here. The national D-Day memorial is there because Bedford lost more boys on D-Day, the June 6, 1944 invasion of France, than any other place. Nineteen young men they lost, out of a town of only about 3,000. On the morning of June 6, 1944 the Bedford Boys and thousands like them loaded up in boats in England and crossed the turbulent waters of the English Channel headed toward France, on the mission that would break the back of Hitler s army. That morning victory was uncertain and massive casualties were inevitable. Yet they knew they could trust their commanding officer. Dwight D. Eisenhower had agonized over the decision to invade France and take on the German army from such a vulnerable position. He knew we had to stop Hitler but he also understood the terribly high human cost. Eisenhower s struggle with the decision is well documented. He was tormented by the unavoidable cost. And he knew how perilous the invasion was. He even wrote a note to be read to our nation if the invasion did not go well. The contents of that note reveal His heart Our landings in the Cherbourg-Havre area have failed to gain a satisfactory foothold and I have withdrawn the troops. My decision to attack at this time and place was based on the best information available. The troops, the air and the Navy did all that bravery and devotion to duty could do. If any blame or fault attaches to the attempt it is mine alone. Thank God Eisenhower did not have to release the letter. But you can see his character in those words. The invasion was a success. Still, the cost was high. Besides thousands wounded, about 2,500 Americans died on the French beaches that day. Those American boys fought and many of them died with their trust placed appropriately in their commanding officer. What did that trust mean? That he would assure them all would go well? No; they were at war. That he would assure them of comforts and conveniences? No; they were at war. They could, however, trust his heart. He had said this was the right thing. He had more information, training and military wisdom than they. And he had not decided this casually or capriciously, but painstakingly, agonizingly. He cared deeply for those G.I.s and their families. 4

5 And his men trusted him. They trusted his heart. They trusted his mission. And they trusted the power at his disposal. That trust didn t mean they were certain he would protect them from all harm. So many died. Trusting Eisenhower was not about Eisenhower protecting them or making life good for them. It was about His heart and about His cause. They knew he was leading them in a mission bigger than any of them. They believed they were fighting with him for the right cause to say, There will not be another Pearl Harbor under our watch. To say, The concentration camps must be liberated at all costs. To say, Freedom is so precious it is worth even the cost of the blood of our sons, brothers, husbands and fathers. And trusting God is not about believing He will deliver us from all harm and give us what we ask for and make life comfortable for us. Trusting God is about believing His heart is pure, His power is limitless, and His mission to the world is one we ought to want to be part of. That s the message of Revelation to the early Christians. Some would be imprisoned. Some would die. Last night I got an from Susan Lafferty as perhaps some of you did asking us to pray for a man who is imprisoned for his faith. That was the kind of man to whom the book of Revelation was written. And the message of Revelation is this: You are on the right side, and you can trust your leader! What would a radical trust mean? For some, it s a financial thing.. One of the biggest steps of faith you can take is to give back one tenth of your income to God. For some it s a career decision. Perhaps for a long time you have sensed that God is leading you into something different. It s a risk. It s more school. For some it s a matter of pure belief. Do I believe God has both the heart and the power that His friends say He does? For some it would be a matter of becoming a follower of Jesus, of trusting Jesus and not your own goodness for your life here and hereafter. I invite you to trust Him enough to obey Him. After all When you can t trace His hand (in the crises of your life) You can absolutely trust His heart. 5